


Can't Fool Me

by CRichwine



Category: The Avengers
Genre: (the movie one), Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Never written these guys before, Pepper Potts - Freeform, Sam Wilson is basically a therapist in his free time, Sam being a helpful person, This takes place a while after Civil War, Tony needs to vent, Tony vents about his time as a hostage and the torture, and then all the other traumatizing events he's been through, so i hope it's okay, so the Avengers is back together, this isn't a ship fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-21
Updated: 2017-07-16
Packaged: 2018-11-16 21:04:04
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,589
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11260959
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/CRichwine/pseuds/CRichwine
Summary: Sam Wilson might've been many things, but stupid was not one of them.Sure, he was an Avenger. The Falcon, Cap's buddy. But he had another job that helped people, one that, if he was honest with himself, probably liked more than throwing himself into a deadly situation. Helping veterans. Of course, with the time constraints that his other job, placed on him, it wasn't something he got to do often, and he'd never worked with them outside of group therapy meetings. Until he met Tony Stark.





	1. The Look

**Author's Note:**

  * In response to a prompt by [ForwardSteel](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ForwardSteel/pseuds/ForwardSteel) in the [Tonyneedstherapy](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/Tonyneedstherapy) collection. 



> **Prompt:**
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> Sam deals with veterans for a living, he starts to notice similarities between them and Tony Stark.
> 
> Bonus points if Sam also has to find out Tony was tortured during a flashback.
> 
> (Thanks for reading, thanks for the prompt, and I'd love feedback!)

Sam Wilson might've been many things, but stupid was not one of them.

 

Sure, he was an Avenger. The Falcon, Cap's buddy. But he had another job that helped people, one that, if he was honest with himself, he probably liked more than throwing himself into a deadly situation. Helping veterans. Of course, with the time constraints that his other job placed on him, it wasn't something he got to do often, and he'd never worked with them outside of group therapy meetings. Until he met Tony Stark.

His fellow Avenger liked to live the high life, but he certainly didn't like to live it alone. If he wasn't inviting the group over to hang out at the Tower, he was with Pepper Potts, a business associate, anybody. He was smooth and suave, arrogant yet lovable, according to his numerous fans (though some claimed he was overrated). And to everyone else, that was just who Tony was. All there was to it. But Sam knew better. He could see it in the little things, things that told him that this man was afraid. Things that told him that there wasn't a big difference between Tony and those veterans.

He assumed no one else had noticed, except for perhaps Pepper, who could be very perceptive. But those little things stood out to him more and more, like how every now and then the man would look over his shoulder like he was expecting someone, or rub the side of his neck as though he'd been electrocuted. The way he drank so much coffee and was almost always sleep deprived. He drank a lot of alcohol, too. Everyone assumed that it was caused by the falling out he'd had with Steve a few years earlier, and the discovery of who killed his parents, but Sam wondered if it was something else. He wondered because the man's eyes were haunted, like he'd seen crap he wished he could forget, but couldn't. The look of a guy who'd been through hell and back. And knowing Tony, he'd never have gotten a therapist; he was too prideful. But Sam couldn't just let this go, so he decided to do something about it.

\--------------------  
Tony sat at the kitchen counter, drumming his fingers on the granite. He was waiting for Sam. Earlier that day, he'd received a text from his teammate saying he had something urgent to talk about, but he couldn't mention it on the phone. His curiosity spiked at that, so he had arranged for him to come over for lunch.

"Sir?" The voice of his AI, Friday, caught his attention. "Sam Wilson is here."

Tony nodded. "Finally. Let him in, Friday."

"Yessir."

After a few moments, Sam appeared in the doorway. He responded to Friday's greeting rather dully, and he looked worried about something. Tony gave him a small wave, grinning, before grabbing a sandwich from the tray in front of him.

"Hey there, Wilson! Take a seat. Also, you should try one of these sandwiches," he said, taking a huge bite before continuing, his mouth full. "Pepper made 'em. I was just gonna get us some Burger King but apparently when you have guests you have to be 'polite', even though you've been here already like, a bajillion times. She's out by the way, business meeting." He said all of this in one breath.

Sam held up his hand to stop Tony's rambling as he sat across from him. He raised an eyebrow at the billionaire. "And...how many cups of coffee have you had today?"

"Only two. Maybe four. Possibly five. Pretty sure I added a shot of some kind of alcohol to the last one. I was up all last night working though, so I needed it."

He grabbed a sandwich and thrust it towards Sam. "Here, eat it."

Taking the sandwich to placate the man, Sam just sat and looked at him. Tony, oblivious as he was, continued to eat. And so they sat in silence. After about five minutes of this Tony looked at him with concern.

"So....important discussion, or are you just gonna stare at me like we're in a fan fiction?"

"What?"

"Nothing. You said you had something you had to talk about."

Sam shifted in his seat, leaning forwards and lacing his hands together. If Tony didn't know better, he'd say he looked almost like a doctor or something.

"Yeah, uh...so listen, I know we've known each other for a few years, right? The whole group's known you since God knows when, but...I don't know a lot about you, man, so I don't wanna be all in your business....but I just wanted to say, you aren't as good at pretending as you think you are."

Tony swallowed hard, setting his sandwich down slowly. "I don't--what?"

Sam rolled his eyes, sighing deeply. "Really? You can't fool me, Tony. I've worked with veterans. I can tell when they've been through stuff, 'cause they've got the look. And let me tell you, you got the look, too."

He folded his arms, gazing at the floor for a moment before looking back at Stark, who looked dumbstruck. "You don't gotta tell me what it was if you don't want to, man. I'm just sayin', it'd help to get it off your chest. So, y'know, I'm here to talk to."

The "invincible" Iron Man still hadn't responded, but was simply staring at him. His eyes looked fragile. Taking this as his cue, Sam sighed again and started for the door.

Just before he reached it, a voice made him stop. A voice cracked and layered with so much pain it made his heart hurt. The voice made him turn back.

"Wait," it said.

 

 


	2. His Name Was Ho Yinsen

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wowwww I updated this WAY later than I meant to...sorry! Also, it's short. :P Feedback is appreciated. Have a nice day!

Sam turned back to the counter, eliminating the short distance between himself and his fellow Avenger, sitting back down. He kept his gaze as steady as possible as he met Tony's eyes, which were bleak and watery. The Falcon sighed, spreading his hands.

"Spill."

And Tony did. At first, his words were shuddering and halting, as though he'd never had to put the story to words before (or at least, not all of it), but the longer he talked, the faster his words came. With such a traumatic event bottled up inside of him for all those years, Sam was surprised that Tony wasn't worse off than he was. He heard the whole story, starting with Tony's kidnapping. The soldiers, who were dead within moments, the shrapnel launched into his heart. The magnet placed into his chest, and the man who had put it there, to save his life. Tony didn't give a name, and Sam didn't press for it. It was too painful, he could tell.

Soon Tony's eyes weren't simply watery, they were leaking. As his story continued, silent tears slipped down his face. His eyes and cheeks were red, and his nose had started running. Tony didn't seem to care. Sam started to become concerned when the other Avenger began to rock back and forth, eyes fixed on the plate of forgotten sandwiches sitting on the counter. Tony's pain was so raw that Sam found his own vision blurring with tears. As the billionaire's shivering grew worse, Sam got up, walking around the counter to Tony. He sat next to him and placed an arm around his shoulders. 

"I'm here, man." He said gently. Tony relaxed a bit at the touch, and continued his story. When it was finished, Sam was quiet. There was nothing but the sound of the Iron Man's quiet sobs. 

Sam looked up at the ceiling. 

"Friday!" He called.

"Yes, Sam?" Came the quick response. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tony look up in confusion.

"Call Pepper."

"Who says you can give me orders, Wilson?" He could almost hear the Irish A.I.'s eyebrows raising. 

"No, it's fine, Pepper doesn't need to-" Tony started to interrupt. Sam shot him a glare.

"I think Pepper does. Look, Friday, Tony's not in great shape here. I think having Pepper around would help." He did his best to keep his irritation out of his voice, silently cursing Tony for creating the A.I. to be so temperamental. 

There was silence as Friday contemplated Sam's point.

"Mister Stark?" She asked, concerned. "Are you okay?"

Tony let out a shuddering breath. "Uh, yeah, Friday, I'm good."

Friday  _hmm_ ed skeptically. "Right. Thank you for the suggestion, Sam. Contacting Pepper Potts."

Tony looked up, wiping his eyes. "What? No! I said, I'm fine!" Sam side-eyed him.

"No, you're not, Tony. We're gonna help you, whether you want us to or not. You don't have to carry this around by yourself anymore."

Tony stared at him for a moment. Tentatively, he leaned forward and gave Sam a one-armed hug. He patted Tony on the back, standing. 

"I'm going to go talk to Pepper, since Friday's calling her. I'll be right back."

Tony nodded.

Sam looked at the man with sympathy. "We'll get you through this, okay?"

"Okay." Tony whispered. If Sam didn't know better, he'd think there was a small, sad smile on his face.

As he started to walk away, planning on how best to tell Pepper about Tony's breakdown, he heard the voice again. Sad and broken, longing and quiet, but with the slightest hint of something else. Thankfulness.

"Sam."

He turned back.

Tony didn't look at him, but he could see more tears, falling slowly, one at a time.

 

"His name was Ho Yinsen."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha this was underwhelming I'm sorry


End file.
